Is this custom special drive interface for 2.5" drives something new to the mini? I ask because I have a PB, and I was able to upgrade it's HD to 80 GB without any special interface.
I'm guessing your new to the Mac platform. Well, get used to it! Apple's CEO and their engineers/designers pay attention to every last excruciating detail.
We started having weekly management meetings in June 1981, which were attended by most of the team, where we discussed the issues of the week. At the second or third meeting, Burrell presented an intricate blueprint of the PC board layout, which had already been used to build a few working prototypes, blown up to four times the actual size.
Steve started critiquing the layout on a purely esthetic basis. "That part's really pretty", he proclaimed. "But look at the memory chips. That's ugly. The lines are too close together".
George Crow, our recently hired analog engineer, interrupted Steve. "Who cares what the PC board looks like? The only thing that's important is how well that it works. Nobody is going to see the PC board."
Steve responded strongly. "I'm gonna see it! I want it to be as beautiful as possible, even if it's inside the box. A great carpenter isn't going to use lousy wood for the back of a cabinet, even though nobody's going to see it."
George started to argue with Steve, since he wasn't on the team long enough to know that it was a losing battle. Fortunately, Burrell interrupted him.
"Well, that was a difficult part to layout because of the memory bus.", Burrell responded. "If we change it, it might not work as well electrically".
"OK, I'll tell you what," said Steve. "Let's do another layout to make the board prettier, but if it doesn't work as well, we'll change it back."
So we invested another $5,000 or so to make a few boards with a new layout that routed the memory bus in a Steve-approved fashion. But sure enough, the new boards didn't work properly, as Burrell had predicted, so we switched back to the old design for the next run of prototypes.
Where can you get a 1 GB stick of PC2700 RAM with a lifetime warranty from a reputable vendor that's not gouging you on shipping? The lowest price I've seen is $158 on a stick that should work, but might not. Cheapest on a stick that is specifically advertised to work is $170.
Pretty much the same deal on the 512 stick, but the margins aren't as wide. Probably compatible: $67. Advertised as compatible: $69.
My source is DealRam. As they haven't added the Mini to their systems drop down list, I looked at prices for the eMac.
When you replace the bulb, be sure to wipe off any place you might have touched it with an alcohol swab (like you find in a first aid kit or just a paper towel and rubbing alcohol). It's the oil from your fingers that can cause a halogen bulb to explode, or just burn out prematurely.
IIRC, the clone makers told Steve to "pound sand", as he put it in some interview.
Basically Apple was honoring it's agreements, but made it clear that they weren't going to license future operating systems (OS X, maybe OS 9) under those same agreements. This effectively killed cloning, but but a continuation of cloning would have effectively killed Apple, which would have killed the clones anyway.
I think this is the interview. It's on the Steve Jobs Info site. If that's not the right interview, then it's another on the movies page. I just saw it the other day.
I suppose you might be able to sell the old 256 MB module then, but is that really worth the effort?
I'd strongly advise against doing this, mainly because that 256 stick will come in handy if you ever need to troubleshoot hardware problems. Being able to swap in the factory installed RAM will save headaches and time.
So, you're completely correct. The 512 MB option is very reasonable, and there's one less thing to keep track of the extra RAM.
Your post perfectly illustrates why there will never be a one size fits all computing solution. Also, your point that you enjoy building as a hobby means that you shouldn't have to calculate your time into a comparison, when you're making the decision.
For some, the mini will best suit their needs for obvious reasons, for others it won't. You were at least open minded enough to consider the mini.
Now for the flame:
That NCIX Cube is not only about 4x-6x larger than a mini, but it's one of the more butt ugly SFF PCs I've ever seen! How can you bear to have it on your desk? =)
But did you check the date codes on that RAM? If the date codes have expired, and the RAM is not fresh, you could encounter problems. Better email OWC Larry and ask him if he's resolved the date code issue.
</dealmac inside joke>
Good to hear FrankenMac is still going strong.
I'e also ordered a ton of shit from OWC and have been extremely pleased with their customer service. I'll pimp for them any day.
I just wanted to add that if you do buy aftermarket RAM, it's a good idea to hold onto the factory RAM (and label it and remember where you're storing it) rather than throwing it out or selling it on ebay.
If, God forbid, you should have a problem that is RAM related at some later date, you'll save yourself time and hassles if you can swap in the factory installed RAM and identify the problem. As fast as the Applecare service is (and it can be pretty damn fast), no one wants to send out their computer and have it sent back unrepaired because the fault was with the 3rd party RAM not covered by Applecare.
Personally, I think it's better to use 3rd party RAM that comes with a lifetime guarantee, offered by many vendors such as OWC, but I can understand someone not wanting to deal with more than one vendor for customer support and going with Apple's BTO upgrade.
There's one guy on slashdot whose opinion I trust when it comes to codecs, and that's Ben Waggoner. Unfortunately, he hasn't yet weighed in on this matter.
Waggoner knows his stuff. I've met him a few times at talks and workshops he's given. He was part of the Media Cleaner when it was still at Terran Interactive. It's possible he goes back as far as Movie Cleaner, but I'm not sure. Anyway, the upshot is that I don't think there is a greater expert of codecs on slashdot.
Here's something interesting from the MPEG LA site:
In addition to different licensing options, the License employs reasonable annual limitations to provide more cost predictability,
threshold levels below which certain royalties will not be charged in order to encourage early-stage adopters and minimize the impact on lower volume users, and some licensing options with royalty choices that require no royalty reports.
You're right and you're wrong. Quicktime is not a compression format. It's a file container architecture. Sorenson is a non-standard compression format. Sorenson looks beautiful and compresses well, but it is not widely supported.
I bet you a dollar that if I put a quicktime file encoded to MP4 up on a website, and you viewed it with any player that supports MP4, you wouldn't know it was a quicktime file. If you opened the file in a text editor and looked at the header, you might figure out. But if you've played many MP4 files, chances are that some of them were encoded using quicktime as the architecture, and you never knew it.
The company that created the Sorenson codec makes a really great compression product called Sorenson Squeeze. There is both a windows and a mac version, unfortunately no linux version. It compresses video files into a huge range of codecs, including.wmv and MP4.
Slashdot Mirror
Is this custom special drive interface for 2.5" drives something new to the mini? I ask because I have a PB, and I was able to upgrade it's HD to 80 GB without any special interface.
I think you, your brain, and your fingers need family counseling. Possibly an intervention. =)
Sometimes to the point of absurdity.
Funny story from Folklore.org:
Where can you get a 1 GB stick of PC2700 RAM with a lifetime warranty from a reputable vendor that's not gouging you on shipping? The lowest price I've seen is $158 on a stick that should work, but might not. Cheapest on a stick that is specifically advertised to work is $170.
Pretty much the same deal on the 512 stick, but the margins aren't as wide. Probably compatible: $67. Advertised as compatible: $69.
My source is DealRam. As they haven't added the Mini to their systems drop down list, I looked at prices for the eMac.
Dammit!
You had me hoping that I'd finally be able to transfer this 17 Meg file that's been taking 20 minutes.
OK, that's it. I'm starting a Holy War!
Sincerely,
Kottke*
*Not really Kottke
I think it has something to do with gathering wool from sheap.
When you replace the bulb, be sure to wipe off any place you might have touched it with an alcohol swab (like you find in a first aid kit or just a paper towel and rubbing alcohol). It's the oil from your fingers that can cause a halogen bulb to explode, or just burn out prematurely.
Why don't they stop posting all these Apple© Slashvertisements(TM) on the first page, and you Apple lovers keep your jerk off sessions out of non-Apple stories? And that includes the stories about other, non-Apple, mp3 players.
If you don't like spooge in your eye, stay the hell out of bukkake.slashdot.org.
If you use a registered account, you can filter out the bukkake stories. If you insist on browsing without an account, bring plenty of paper towels.
You're going to want something like this ADB->USB adapter which lists for $39. For that price, you can probably buy a decent USB keyboard and mouse.
Froogle for lower prices on the iMate.
Another thing, similar to RadioShack: The Apple Store wants your zip code? WTF?
IIRC, the clone makers told Steve to "pound sand", as he put it in some interview.
Basically Apple was honoring it's agreements, but made it clear that they weren't going to license future operating systems (OS X, maybe OS 9) under those same agreements. This effectively killed cloning, but but a continuation of cloning would have effectively killed Apple, which would have killed the clones anyway.
I think this is the interview. It's on the Steve Jobs Info site. If that's not the right interview, then it's another on the movies page. I just saw it the other day.
I suppose you might be able to sell the old 256 MB module then, but is that really worth the effort?
I'd strongly advise against doing this, mainly because that 256 stick will come in handy if you ever need to troubleshoot hardware problems. Being able to swap in the factory installed RAM will save headaches and time.
So, you're completely correct. The 512 MB option is very reasonable, and there's one less thing to keep track of the extra RAM.
Your post perfectly illustrates why there will never be a one size fits all computing solution. Also, your point that you enjoy building as a hobby means that you shouldn't have to calculate your time into a comparison, when you're making the decision.
For some, the mini will best suit their needs for obvious reasons, for others it won't. You were at least open minded enough to consider the mini.
Now for the flame:
That NCIX Cube is not only about 4x-6x larger than a mini, but it's one of the more butt ugly SFF PCs I've ever seen! How can you bear to have it on your desk? =)
Sure, if you're talking full size HDsm but the Mini uses notebook sized drives. Let me know how many 160 GB notebook drives you've come across.
And if his keyboard/mouse is PS2, PS2->USB adapters start at about $2, and most geeks already have such an adapter in their parts bin.
I'e also ordered a ton of shit from OWC and have been extremely pleased with their customer service. I'll pimp for them any day.
The water cooling is only on the top speed G5 Tower. The configurations with slower G5 cpus don't use water cooling.
See here.
But your overall point is still valid.
Hey Steve!
I just wanted to add that if you do buy aftermarket RAM, it's a good idea to hold onto the factory RAM (and label it and remember where you're storing it) rather than throwing it out or selling it on ebay.
If, God forbid, you should have a problem that is RAM related at some later date, you'll save yourself time and hassles if you can swap in the factory installed RAM and identify the problem. As fast as the Applecare service is (and it can be pretty damn fast), no one wants to send out their computer and have it sent back unrepaired because the fault was with the 3rd party RAM not covered by Applecare.
Personally, I think it's better to use 3rd party RAM that comes with a lifetime guarantee, offered by many vendors such as OWC, but I can understand someone not wanting to deal with more than one vendor for customer support and going with Apple's BTO upgrade.
There's one guy on slashdot whose opinion I trust when it comes to codecs, and that's Ben Waggoner. Unfortunately, he hasn't yet weighed in on this matter.
Waggoner knows his stuff. I've met him a few times at talks and workshops he's given. He was part of the Media Cleaner when it was still at Terran Interactive. It's possible he goes back as far as Movie Cleaner, but I'm not sure. Anyway, the upshot is that I don't think there is a greater expert of codecs on slashdot.
Just because he's a slashdotter, doesn't mean he's stupid. As unlikely as that sounds.
Anyone know where I can get Leonard Part 6 encoded with MPEG-4 Part 10?
Wouldn't that be Døgmë 95? =)
But seriously, you're a font of enlightenment. Or useless trivia. I haven't decided.
You're right and you're wrong. Quicktime is not a compression format. It's a file container architecture. Sorenson is a non-standard compression format. Sorenson looks beautiful and compresses well, but it is not widely supported.
.wmv and MP4.
I bet you a dollar that if I put a quicktime file encoded to MP4 up on a website, and you viewed it with any player that supports MP4, you wouldn't know it was a quicktime file. If you opened the file in a text editor and looked at the header, you might figure out. But if you've played many MP4 files, chances are that some of them were encoded using quicktime as the architecture, and you never knew it.
The company that created the Sorenson codec makes a really great compression product called Sorenson Squeeze. There is both a windows and a mac version, unfortunately no linux version. It compresses video files into a huge range of codecs, including
Personally, I'd use MP4.
Uh, he's already making users watch .wmv clips. How is quicktime less free than .wmv?